1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to vehicles and, more specifically, to a passenger detection system for a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
For use in public transportation systems and other types of mass transit scenarios, it is known to provide passenger detecting systems within the transport vehicles. Typically, the passenger detecting system is installed in a vehicle to count passengers entering or exiting an opening of the vehicle. The detecting system generally operates in a passive, stand-alone mode with some variations used to communicate with other on-board devices. The conventional passenger detecting system includes a beam of light such as an infrared light that is projected across the opening of the vehicle and is broken by a passenger entering or exiting the vehicle through the opening. When the beam of light is broken, a signal is sent to a microprocessor that records or counts the passenger.
One disadvantage of the above passenger detecting system is that it does not know if the passenger is entering or exiting the vehicle to keep track of how many passengers are in the vehicle. Another disadvantage of the known passenger detecting system is that it cannot tell if more than one passenger entered or exited the vehicle at the same time. Additionally, the current passenger detection systems have the disadvantage of not being integrated with other system technologies that can provide more than just simple raw numbers of passengers or pass that information to where it is most useful. For example, it is desirous not only to know the number of passengers on the transport vehicle at any given time while in route but to also relay this information to a central dispatch or control center. This is true of other corresponding information as well, including but not limited to, the vehicle's actual location along the route, the numbers of passengers boarding or leaving at each of the route stops, any deviations of the vehicle from its prescribed route, and real time video images of the passengers from within the vehicle itself.
Conventional passenger counting or detection systems are incapable of integrating and processing these varying types of information from the vehicle and its surroundings into a usable and transferable format for use by the transportation system controllers. Thus, to accomplish a usable integration of these different types of information, a microprocessor controlled passenger detecting system that is capable of processing and routing data between vehicle systems, as well as in and out of the vehicle, to and from remote systems is required. Therefore, not only is there a need in the art to provide a passenger detection system that is capable of accurately detecting one or more passengers entering and exiting the vehicle, but there is also a need in the art for a microprocessor controlled passenger detection system that can integrate other on-board systems, process the data, and communicate with a remote system.